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Archive for the Category "Personal Life"

One Year On!

 Author: admin Dec 14

In a post in January 2011, I mentioned I had become a self employed affiliate marketer, after quiting my safe and well paid job! Some people said I was stupid to do it in the recession, others said go for it and good luck, others didn’t have a clue what I was talking about so just kept quiet!

Anyway, in the past year quite a few things have changed. The good news is that I am still self employed! Over the last few months, my home office has evolved quite a bit, from a single computer with 2 mismatched monitors into 2 computers, both with nice 2 x 22″ monitors and nice Logitech Trackball monitors (I have an ongoing problem with my elbow from using “normal” mice), a HP MicroServer, 17″ Dell laptop, 7″ Acer netbook and HP TouchPad – fair enough, the last 3 bits are for use around the house rather than the office. I’ve also bought a Three MiWi for 3G internet access due to our BT line being useless and going down at least once a month for a few days. The annoying thing is I can get a 6mb connection through that and only 2mb through BT. Hopefully Three will introduce some higher useage packages soon as 15GB isnt enough for me to switch totally.

I’ve continued with my affiliate sites, although havent built quite as many as I would have liked over the year. I’ve also expanded into different niches which I had previously decided not to touch (health and beauty products which pay $40+ per sale) which are doing well. I’ve also bought a few sites along the way at decent prices to add to my income.I have purchased Price Tapestry and used it on my gold locket site and several others. It certainly makes handling those type of sites a lot easier and is well worth the £200 price tag. Infact, it paid for itself in 3 months (ie the 2 sites it was used on in those 3 months, made over £200 more than they had in the previous 3 months). I’ve also finished my own price scraper which allows me to maintain a database of up to date prices for certain products. My sites can then pull the information that they need from the database which is perfect for small sites which only sell a couple of products.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve also dabbled with a bit more domaining this year which has provided a nice little side income. The biggest drain on my time at the minute though is helping other companies with their SEO. It started off with one company, however has soon spread via word of mouth and I’m now looking after quite a few. Still, its more money in the bank each month, so shouldn’t complain.
The biggest change this year though, is the fact I am going to be a dad! He is now 30 weeks and due in February! I can’t wait. It does mean that a few things will need to change, such as not working 5am through to 9pm with a few small breaks for food on certain days, or being able to put in big chunks of time without being disturbed. As a result I’ll be looking to outsource more of the work such as article writing (I still do some myself). While it means I wont have as much of the money to myself, I’ll have more time to spend with my son, which, at least to me, is worth more than any amount of money!
So, what will the next year hold…only time will tell I guess! As long as my little boy is born fit and healthy and I dont have to go back to working for someone else, I’ll be more than happy through!

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Category: Personal Life  | One Comment

Funky Pigeon Review

 Author: admin Jul 12

I dont normally post reviews of non affiliate/seo sites on here, however thought I would share this site here.

Unless you have been living under a rock you will know that personalised cards are being advertised everywhere. First it was Moonpig. I received a code for a free card from them one year so thought I would try it out – however the card never turned up. Suprisingly I never used them again. Since then though, everyone seems to be jumping on the personalised cards idea and sites such as “Funky Pigeon” popping up everywhere.

Anyway, I was away on holiday for two weeks in June this year, which ran over Fathers day. As usual I forgot to buy a Fathers day card! Fortunately I was checking my emails while away on holiday and noticed an email from Funky Pigeon for a free fathers day card. I didn’t have anything to lose even if it didnt turn up as I hadn’t got a card already and had no way of getting one. A few clicks later and I had picked a card from the huge range available, personalised the text on the front and inside and told them to send it straight to my dad – done! I was amazed when I got a text message from my dad on Fathers day saying thanks for the card!

A few weeks later it was my girlfriend’s sisters 18th birthday so I decided to give Funky Pigeon another go, this time using a photo on the card and changing all the text again. This time I had the card sent to me so we could give it her with her presents. The next day the card came! It looked great, the photo was great and everything looked as it should. Everyone at the party commented on the card and it was by far her favourite.

Then today I realised that I hadn’t bought a card for my niece’s Christening. Im not religious at all, I feel like a hypocrite even going to the Christening. When I was looking around the shops, each one had a handful of cards, but they were all very religious – after all its a Christening! I didn’t feel comfortable giving any of them so decided to try Funky Pigeon. I got home, went to the site and searched for “Christening”. 62 cards – perfect! Within a couple of minutes I had picked a card which I liked the look of, wasn’t too religious, added my niece’s name and customised the message inside a little and placed the order.

It is so much easier buying cards online, especially when you are out of the country and need to send a card (Fathers day), you want something a little special (like the 18th birthday card) or when you want the freedom to change the text (the christening card). Add to that the fact the prices are quite reasonable and there always seems to be a discount voucher available and it is not only convenient, but cheap as well. The Fathers day card was free, 18th birthday card was £1.49 and the Christening card was £1.24 – all including free deliver to you or direct to the recipient – which from my experience is the next day!

If you are interested in signing up with Funky Pigeon at http://www.funkypigeon.com then by using my account number (776595) when you sign up, you will automatically get 50% off your first order! On top of this if you preload your account with £10, you get £2.50 free which makes everything even cheaper! Oh and I get £3 account credit if you sign up with my account number.

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Category: General, Personal Life  | 4 Comments

Affiliate Marketing Holiday

 Author: admin Feb 15

4 Weeks today and I’ll be jetting off to Egypt for a week! I cant wait, its long overdue as I messed up the dates for the holidays last year. We went in March and then again in June which has meant a 9 month wait for this holiday. I made sure I didnt make the same mistake again though and booked March & September this year :)

This is going to be a proper holiday, not like last year when I spent a couple of hours here and there working on different websites. I plan on doing no work at all. I think I need to make myself not do anything. Im out of the house 10 hours a day at my full time job, then I spent a good 3 hours per night working on my sites or doing research. At the weekends I spend about 5 to 7 hours per day working on my sites, so all in I “work” for about 75-80 hours per week!

I know people that think that by chucking a single post of copied content onto a domain and leaving it, it will magically make them money. Im not one of those! I know if this is going to work for me, I need to put the hours is now, do the research and get on with it. However I also know that after 4 months of doing 80 hour weeks, with most of it sat in front of a computer screen, I need a proper holiday. No computer and no work!

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